Turning out the lights on Prop 1

P-I intern Dan Catchpole says the crowd at the Proposition 1 election party at the Westin is thinning out. Though the campaign hasn’t officially conceded, people are talking like they believe the transportation measure has gone down.

King County Councilwoman Julia Patterson said:

“The voters told us no. The question that remained unanswered is why. we need to understand why.”

She said transit supporters will blame the roads portion of the package and roads supporters will blame the funds that would have been spent on transit, making it difficult to reach consensus on a new proposal.

King County Councilwoman Larry Phillips said “this is a very difficult loss.” He said the Achilles heel was the size of the package.

At last count, both the Regional Transit Improvement District and Sound Transit portions of the measure were losing 54 percent to 46 percent. Both parts must pass for the measure to be approved.